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Appropriate Comments And Not

Some time ago The Donald stirred the pot by commenting on the kneelers in the NFL. He said:

Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired!” You know, some owner is going to do that. He’s going to say, “That guy that disrespects our flag, he’s fired.” And that owner, they don’t know it. They don’t know it. They’ll be the most popular person, for a week. They’ll be the most popular person in this country.

The Donald is right. People would love it. We are not big fans of these comments in the manner of The Donald’s immediate predecessor but we recognize the nature of politics. We would like presidents to be more presidential but the events of the last 25 years have argued against it.

The release of a highly anticipated Bollywood blockbuster has been delayed after a politician from India’s governing party offered a bounty of $1.5 million for the heads of the movie’s star and director amid outcry that the film distorted Hindu legend.

Others have threatened to break the legs of the actor who plays the Muslim villain. Two things: First, and obviously, the comments of The Donald and the Indian politician are entirely different. It does’t matter if the latter’s speech constitutes fighting words or not. This is not a legal issue. It is an issue of appropriate behavior. The Donald is OK and the other is not.

The other point is how the WaPo categorized this outbreak of incivility. Was it intolerance, racism, or something else? Here is what they said:

The violent reaction to the film’s release further suggests a groundswell of conservatism in Modi’s India.

It appears that conservatism is consistent with calling for cutting off heads and breaking legs. We are not sure how Vidhi came to that conclusion. We would be interested to hear Vidhi’s description of conservatism.